Hypercompendia

I’m anxious to write something fresh and new into the Storyspace environment but I really need to close out Paths first.  I really like the concept, the story, and most of the writing though I’m likely the only one who does.  Which brings me to a toss-and-turn of several nights running.

Who do I please?  I’m really not writing for the reader completely, though it’s always been a factor in any type of writing and particularly in fiction.  In hypertext, it wants to become tantamount to prime reader enjoyment and that’s not where my head’s at.  I still seem to want to lead him through the narrative.

Maybe it’s because I’ve started with a story that lent itself to this form.  Maybe it’s just my bossy nature.  But I just can’t seem to make the loops and connections that would allow a reader to run willy-nilly through my work and come out scratching his head (as I’ve admittedly done on other hypertext pieces and found them not a pleasant experience). 

I think that what I’m saying here is that I don’t want to write according to hypertext, but rather use the tool of hypertext to write the story the way I want.  If I can manage to do that, it could be a phenomenal piece of work.

I’m happier now with the way I have the structure of Paths set up, though it does appear to follow a more obvious one-track line that I’ve drawn through the stories to connect the various cars into a train.

There are spaces though that take the reader off into other directions for a while, though none that carry them away from the narrative.  I’m okay with this.  I’ve allowed the curious reader to explore all the cubbyholes of the characters’ lives.  The less assured reader may still enjoy a narrative simply following space to space; he will never, however, have the full depth of character and thus, story.

But I’m not finished yet.  There are many places where I want to loop around or add something that will enhance what has already been written down. 

Now I’m back to the fun part.

Figured it was time for a new mapview, though it’s hard to tell from this, reduced down to 25% and reduced again via the website limitations.  Not all Children (spaces) are visible since they’re not necessary to see when I’m working on the project.  Note too that I’ve decided not to rework the stories out of their ‘columns’ since there aren’t that many links between them and the majority of the links are offshoots (in language, maybe ‘offshouts’?) within the stories themselves.

Got a lot done on Paths today and finally reached the ending.  There’s still lots to do on it though.  First, to check all the links–sent it off and already found one that bypassed a small spot of a story.  There are also some hangers left from Child Spaces that still connect to the wrong Writing Spaces by going to the next one in the story line, or to another when that’s become a no-no.

Some happy surprises: in working in Map View and keeping in mind that the bits of each story should flow into another (or as I’ve since added, into a "core" narrative) it’s nice to come across spaces that are linked not only by the natural rhythm and topic, but to find a word that matches in each without having planned it.

But there’s plenty more to do and I’m hoping to wrap this project up over the holidays so that new ones can be started. 

I’ll also have to figure out what to do with the piece once it’s done.  If possible, I can maybe link to it from here and post it somehow online.

I’ve come to a point in Paths where I’m at what was the ending of each story.  This brings me to a dilemma–who gets the last word?

While there’s more to do on this whole piece if I want to take it further–plus there are some roundabout loops I’d like to make and I also have to check out the overall linkage if somebody takes a wrong path–this ending creates a whole new drift to the narrative.  Where shall I leave the reader?  Two of the tales seem irresolute and therefore they will be the first to ‘end.’  Oddly enough, the last two are what I’d call parallel in time but for a choice.  Each also has already two different endings–depending upon which time you go through (though I believe this will have to be changed and I’ll need to corral the reader into going back and double-dipping to catch both). 

Could be a fun problem to work out.

Just the idea of someone reading Paths got me going again in a new burst of energy and some semblance of reorganization to finish at least the stories as they stand, adding the core narrative and weaving all five together with knots.  Just about done.

Then I can move back into a more fun part for a while, testing, changing, adding wandering about into wherever it leads me.

Then it’ll be done.

I believe it was Sally, one of the English professors and a friend from whom I first heard the term "weaving."  It meant tying together various strands of story into a braided whole. 

For the past month I’ve been reworking this story (Paths) to fit more into the hypertext environment by taking advantage of the potential it offers.  Every now and then an image would come to me of a macrame’d wall hanging, something I haven’t done in decades yet the idea of making patterns from separated strands of rope is exactly what I seem to be doing now in making this project work.  The Writing Spaces of Storyspace are like the knots where intersecting strands meet and change direction.

It’s been tedious reworking the narrative and every now and then I want to trash it and start something new.  I find myself reading the same thing over and over and over again as I look for a design in plot or even just in language.  The characters are all at a point where reflection brings wistful wondering.  All see the same things differently and made their choices based on that.  Mistakes are made, facts are mistaken.  Normal life cycles and normal concern as the wheel turns.  Like looking down from the highest point of the ferris wheel.

Now that I’ve removed all former links between stories, the Map View gives me a much better idea of what and where the story is going.  I do want to relink at some of the points that I had originally, but now I’ll be able to do so without the use of guard fields (for the most part) because I can see where I can go back into a different area and come out at a point that is natural and moves the story forward.

Still have a slight problem with the narrative now being overly controlled, but I may just have to bite it on this one.  With the new project, working with the Storyspace environment should automatically gear me towards writing within the parameters to be able to understand how to write outside of them.

Well I’m really liking the way the path rolls out on  this project (Paths) now and I’m about a  little over halfway through the changes.  The story seems to read better, offer more intrigue and question, and offer me more leeway into expansion if the opportunity calls for it.

The bad news–and this may be only because of the way I’m doing it–is that is seems to offer a single path to be read properly (ah yes, what is proper anyway?).  Not too worried about it though since I think I’m already seeing ways around that so that the story can offer some differences besides the two options of following me, or getting lost.

Finally have had the nerve to sever all relationship links between the stories as they were originally set up.  It’s just too difficult to keep track of them and they’d still need the guard fields which, as I am coming to understand, aren’t used much by the pro writers.

It does seem as though the new way I’m mapping this is more restrictive–even without guard fields–because I’m setting up a more defined path through the stories.  The natural flow seems to go here, then here, then there, then a word from our sponsor, etc.  The most important change is that the reader is allowed to get a fuller view of whichever life he’s visiting since he can stay within the story for a few spaces, ramble around into it’s own offshooting links, and return to the main narrative flow.  He will also be reading a bit of each story in its proper sequence even though I will have him hopping back and forth among them.

I am allowing the reader to remain within any one story if he so chooses however.  There will be a code that can be recognized for what it is after a reader is into the narrative a bit, though it won’t be outrageously obvious.  The main followthrough, the way I would read it, will be navigated by the Writing Space Click.  For continuation of a single story, there will be a text link, though it won’t be on every Writing Space and that’s why I say it won’t become obvious immediately.  As a matter of fact, as I write this, I’m wondering if this is such a good idea since once that path is followed, it will either bring the reader to the end of that particular thread, or it will bring him back into the main trail at an odd moment, having missed a good portion of the ongoing, interwoven narrative.

Truly, while this pre-setup format of hypertext story was thought to be such a good idea, thinking back now, it would’ve been much easier to start from scratch and write hypertextually instead of thinking hypertext.